Eleanor & Park vs. Why We Broke Up: Traveling Across the New and Improved Chick-Lit Spectrum

Eleanor and Park cannot stand each other when they first meet. The lack of an immediate "spark" is what immediately set this book apart from others in its genre. It is highly uncommon to come across a book in the "teen fiction" or "romance" sections where the characters take longer than a few chapters to fall completely and totally in love. With Eleanor and Park, author Rainbow Rowell forces readers to deal with a real love story – one that doesn’t start right away.

Another interesting element about this book is its characters. Neither of them, in all honesty, are likeable at first. Rowell makes sure to give readers constant reminders of Eleanor’s unruly, red hair and her weight (which, apparently, is above average and, therefore, makes her unattractive). She “never looked nice” (Rowell, 165). She was an easy target for bullies. And Park? He was one of the (very) few Asian students in his school. He liked to wear eyeliner sometimes. He didn’t have many friends. So, it’s hard to picture these two together, given how different they appear at first – and it’s even more difficult to imagine them falling in love. At first, it’s hard to like the images that come to mind. Most readers want to picture two aesthetically pleasing and socially acceptable people to fall in love so they can get the best possible picture in their heads. Eleanor and Park are not poster teens for a quirky romance. Yet, somehow, they pull of one of the greatest love stories of its time. Or, rather, Rowell does. Her voice as an author could be, at times, compared to that of widely popular author John Green:

“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,’ he said, ‘and then take it back.’

‘I can,’ she said. ‘Life’s a bastard”(Rowell).

Perhaps it is the witty back-and-forth banter that makes the story so enticing. Or maybe it’s the way readers learn to love a more realistic love story with each turn of a page. The bottom line is that there is simply something about this book that is highly unconventional in the most wonderful way possible.

 

 

Min and Ed are opposites, like Park and Eleanor. But Ed is your typical attractive jock, and Min is your typical average-looking, quirky, borderline outcast. They fit more of the “typical” character prototypes for chick-lit books. What makes Why We Broke Up so different from other novels of its kind, however, also becomes apparent right at the beginning.

Min and Ed have broken up before the book even starts (hence the title). The entire book is a series of pictures of items that Min is returning to Ed in a box, each with a story (be it one page or fifteen) explaining why it contributed to the eventual downfall of the relationship. Never does one see a love that has already met its demise. Sometimes novels backtrack through the relationship, but never has it already ended by the first page.

But why would I want to read about their “love story” if it is so obviously going to end?

The answer lies in the way the story is written. Handler (who, by the way, wrote the Series of Unfortunate Events…who knew?!) took a stylistic approach seen only in a few novels; one of these is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, in which some chapters Safran Foer chooses to write in run-on sentences, so as to show Oskar’s grandfather’s racing mind. For those who haven’t read sentences with multiple purposeful comma splices, the experience can be a little strange at first. But it quickly becomes somewhat poetic:

“You flew your way through all those stone silent statues, and if I could I'd thunk them all at your goddamn doorstep, as noisy as you were quiet, as furious as we were giggly, as cold and scornful as I was breathless and hot watching you cat burglar for evidence and come back shrugging and empty-handed so we still didn't know, we still couldn't be sure, not until everything was developed...But we never developed them”(Handler).

That’s what makes this book stand out. It forces readers to enter Min’s frantic, post-heartbreak mind. And as messy as it is, it is somehow beautiful. And, most importantly, it’s real. Many romantic/chick-lit novels have the happy ending we hate to love – but this one doesn’t. Because the end had already happened.

 

Rowell and Handler have taken major steps in transforming the highly popular –and also highly criticized – chick-lit culture. Perhaps the most important one, though, is the one that is shared between them: showcasing reality. Reminding love-struck teenage girls (and the occasional boy) that love does not always last, that not every story can have a happy ending, and that people who don’t meet society’s skin-tight standards can indeed fall in love. Yes, this is the most important thing: the reminder that we are human.